JdR:Vampire:Bordeau by Night/Aides de jeu

Road of the Hive

https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Road_of_the_Hive

Daimoinon

These are the mysteries of the Baali, black arts torn whole and beating from the sorcerer-kings of ancient cultures and prehistoric civilizations, incoherent memories passed from tome to tongue, hearkening to times of oblivion. They are sibilant secrets in which all begins to end and begin again. With every new night and novice brought into the circle, the telling grows shorter.

• Sense the Sin

A real mark always convinces himself. The most dangerous Baali aren’t the ones that use extortion, threats, or over displays of power; the most dangerous Demons simply know how to talk their victims into cutting their own throats. This power allows the Baali to find a target’s particular vice.

System: The player rolls Perception + Empathy against living or undead beings; the difficulty is equal to the subject’s Self-Control or Instincts +4. If successful, the Baali can sense the subject’s greatest weakness. The significance of this information is dictated by the degree of success: One success might determine a low Virtue, weak Willpower, or a poorly defended avenue of approach, while two might yield a closely guarded secret or conversational misstep. Three or more yields a central derangement or formative trauma from the subject’s past.

•• Fear of the Void Below

Once the Baali has mastered reading a subject’s darkest secrets, he can reach into the victim’s mind and twist what he finds there. The shock of feeling one’s most deeply held beliefs and darkest fears manipulated can send the victim into catatonia or fits of panic.

System: The Baali must first employ Sense the Sin (above) or use some other method to discern the tragic flaw of the target. She must then speak to the target, playing upon his inadequacies and the inescapable consequences of his shortcomings. A successful Wits + Intimidation roll (difficulty of the subject’s Courage +4) drives the victim into fits of terror (one success), mindless panic-borne flight similar to Rötschreck (two successes), or even unconsciousness (three or more successes). All effects last for the remainder of the scene. Kindred targets may resist with a Courage roll (difficulty equal to the Baali’s Willpower) — they are accustomed to dealing with their Beasts. If the Kindred target garners more successes than the Baali did on her original roll, he resists the power completely.

••• Conflagration

Not all of the Baali’s powers are designed for manipulation and subtlety. The Demons can also call up the fire from the realms of their infernal patrons, hurling it at their enemies in exultation of the Outer Dark. This fire spreads and burns normally, but at the moment of creation it is black and cold, as though drawn from a place where terrestrial physics do not apply.

System: The player spends a blood point. This creates a bolt of black flame that inflicts one die of aggravated damage; more blood points may be spent to increase the size and damage of the flame. Such fires are fleeting and dissipate at the end of the turn, unless the Baali ontinues to spend blood points on Conflagration over several turns, gradually creating a larger flame. The player also rolls Dexterity + Occult (difficulty 6) to hit his target, who may dodge as normal. Vampires confronted with this black fire make Rötschreck tests as if confronted with a similar quantity of normal flame.

Presence

Presence is the Discipline of emotional manipulation. Vampires with this power can inspire passionate fervor or unreasoning terror in mortals and Kindred alike. In addition, unlike most Disciplines, some of Presence’s powers can be used on entire crowds at one time. Presence can transcend race, religion, gender, class, and (most importantly) supernatural nature. As such, this subtle power is one of the most useful Disciplines a vampire can possess. Anyone can resist Presence for one scene by spending a Willpower point and succeeding on a Willpower roll (difficulty 8), but the affected individual must keep spending points until he is no longer in the presence of the vampire (or, in the case of Summon, until the effect wears off). Vampires three or more Generations lower than the wielder need only spend a single Willpower to ignore the Presence for an entire night and need not roll Willpower to do so. The major drawback of Presence is that it controls only the emotions. It causes others to feel a certain way toward the vampire, but does not give her outright control over them. While people weigh strongly the orders that the vampire declares, their minds are still their own. Suicidal or ridiculous directives don’t sound any more sensible just because the person giving them is unusually fascinating. Still, inspired eloquence or significant wealth used in combination with this Discipline can enable the vampire to urge others along a desired course. The Brujah, Followers of Set, Toreador, and Ventrue Clans are all adept in this Discipline. The Ventrue are arguably the most skilled with its application, however, due to their ability to use Presence and Dominate in efficient combination.

• Awe

Those near the vampire suddenly desire to be closer to her and become receptive to her point of view. Awe is extremely useful for mass communication. It matters little what is said — the hearts of those affected lean toward the vampire’s opinion. The weak want to agree with her; even if the strong-willed resist, they soon find themselves outnumbered. Awe can turn a chancy deliberation into a certain resolution in the vampire’s favor almost before her opponents know that the tide has turned. Despite the intensity of this attraction, those so smitten do not lose their sense of self-preservation. Danger breaks the spell of fascination, as does leaving the area.Those subject to Awe will remember how they felt in the vampire’s presence, however. This will influence their reactions should they ever encounter her again.

System: The player spends a blood point and rolls Charisma + Performance (difficulty 7). The number of successes rolled determines how many people are affected, as noted on the chart below. If there are more people present than the character can influence, Awe affects those with lower Willpower ratings first. The power stays in effect for the remainder of the scene or until the character chooses to drop it.

Successes Result

1 success One person

2 successes Two people

3 successes Six people

4 successes 20 people

5 successes Everyone in the vampire’s immediate vicinity (an entire auditorium, a mob)

Those affected can use Willpower points to overcome the effect, but must continue spending Willpower every scene for as long as they remain in the same area as the vampire. As soon as an individual spends a number of Willpower points equal to the successes rolled, he shakes off the Awe completely and remains unaffected for the rest of the night.

•• Dread Gaze

While all Kindred can frighten others by physically revealing their true vampiric natures — baring claws and fangs, glaring with malevolence, hissing loudly with malice — this power focuses these elements to insanely terrifying levels. Dread Gaze engenders unbearable terror in its victim, stupefying him into madness, immobility, or reckless flight. Even the most stalwart individual will fall back from the vampire’s horrific visage.

System: The player rolls Charisma + Intimidation (difficulty equal to the victim’s Wits + Courage). Success indicates the victim is cowed, while failure means the target is startled but not terrified by the sight. Three or more successes means he runs away in abject fear; victims who have nowhere to run claw at the walls, hoping to dig a way out rather than face the vampire. Moreover, each success subtracts one from the target’s action dice pools next turn. The character may attempt Dread Gaze once per turn against a single target, though she may also perform it as an extended action, adding her successes in order to subjugate the target completely. Once the target loses enough dice that he cannot perform any action, he’s so shaken and terrified that he curls up on the ground and weeps. Failure during the extended action means the attempt falters. The character loses all her collected successes and can start over next turn, while the victim may act normally again. A botch at any time indicates the target is not at all impressed — perhaps even finding the vampire’s antics comical — and remains immune to any further uses of Presence by the character for the rest of the story.

Celerity

Not all vampires are slow, meticulous creatures. When needed, some vampires can move fast — really fast. Celerity allows Assamites, Brujah, and Toreadors to move with astonishing swiftness, becoming practically a blur. The Assamites use their speed in conjunction with stealth to strike quickly and viciously from the shadows before they are noticed. Brujah, on the other hand, simply like the edge that the power gives them against overwhelming odds. The Toreador are more inclined to use Celerity to provide an air of unnatural grace to live performances or for an extra push to complete a masterpiece on time, but they can be as quick to draw blood as any assassin or punk when angered.

System: Each point of Celerity adds one die to every Dexterity-related dice roll. In addition, the player can spend one blood point to take an extra action up to the number of dots he has in Celerity at the beginning of the relevant turn; this expenditure can go beyond her normal Generation maximum. Any dots used for extra actions, however, are no longer available for Dexterity- related rolls during that turn. These additional actions must be physical (e.g., the vampire cannot use a mental Discipline like Dominate multiple times in one turn), and extra actions occur at the end of the turn (the vampire’s regular action still takes place per her initiative roll). Normally, a character without Celerity must divide their dice if she wants to take multiple actions in a single turn, as per p. 248. A character using Celerity performs his extra actions (including full movement) without penalty, gaining a full dice pool for each separate action. Extra actions gained through Celerity may not in turn be split into multiple actions, however